Technical Animator / Senior Technical Animator — Quadrupeds, Unreal Engine

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop and maintain animation systems for quadruped characters
• Set up Animation Blueprints, State Machines, Blend Spaces, Animation Layers
• Create and configure IK/FK, Full Body IK, and procedural animation systems
• Set up locomotion: walk, trot, canter, gallop, turns, starts/stops, jumps
• Configure blending, additive animations, sync groups, and transitions
• Work with IK Rig / IK Retargeter and adapt animations between different skeletons
• Work with motion capture data, cleanup, and retargeting
• Create and maintain Control Rig tools
• Fix foot sliding, popping, IK, and blending artifacts
• Optimize Animation Blueprints, Control Rig, and skeletal animation systems
• Develop and maintain animation systems for multiplayer projects
• Work with networked locomotion, prediction, and reconciliation
• Synchronize Montages and locomotion states in networked gameplay
• Collaborate with animators, game designers, and programmers
• Develop and improve the animation pipeline and internal tools

REQUIREMENTS

• 5+ years of experience in technical animation / gameplay animation
• Hands-on experience with quadruped characters
• Portfolio with quadruped animation examples — required
• Strong knowledge of Unreal Engine: Animation Blueprints, Control Rig, IK Rig / Retargeter, Blend Spaces, State Machines
• Solid understanding of animal biomechanics and quadruped locomotion
• Experience with rigging, skinning, and skeleton setup
• Experience with motion capture pipelines
• Experience with Maya, MotionBuilder, or a similar DCC tool
• Understanding of root motion, animation curves, notifies, montages, additive animation
• Experience debugging and optimizing animation systems
• Understanding of the differences between local and replicated character state
• Understanding of which animation states/variables should be calculated locally versus driven by replicated gameplay state
• Understanding of latency, desync, animation popping issues, and ways to minimize them
• Conversational English

NICE TO HAVE

• Experience animating large quadrupeds (not just domestic animals, but heavy/massive locomotion)
• Motion Matching / Pose Search
• Full Body IK / procedural locomotion
• Python / scripting
• C++ in Unreal
• Building animation tools
• Experience optimizing NPC crowds / large numbers of skeletal meshes